First of all, it is a view of the Amedee Mountains. Gold was discovered there in 1906.
Secondly, one is also looking at the Tommy Tucker Cave. This was a significant archaeological site excavated by archaeologists from the University of California from 1949-195 1. The cave is located 200 feet above the valley floor.
On this rainy day, it seems to be an appropriate topic. What is known today as Arnold Field at Lassen High School was originally a agricultural field, prone to flooding from the adjacent Susan River. After the spring floods of 1938, it was decided to construct a levee along the river to prevent future flooding. Once this was accomplished, the high school made more improvements including a new athletic field. In 1939, it was dedicated Arnold Field, a tribute to Med Arnold. Med was not just a member of the first graduating class of 1907, but was a coach for the school’s sports teams for many years.
The background behind Riverside Park is unique. Prior to the park’s creation, it was home to the Fruit Growers Supply Company’s Story Club, a recreational center for its employees. It was destroyed by fire in 1944. Instead of replacing the structure, Fruit Growers converted the parcel into a park for its employees, and the public, too.
In 1963, Fruit Growers sold its mill properties, which included the park, to Eagle Lake Lumber Company. The City of Susanville, it should be noted took care of the park’s maintenance. In 1976, A.A. “Red” Emerson, president of Sierra Pacific Industries, of which the Eagle Lumber Company was a division, offered the park to the City for $23,000. It had recently been appraised at $45,000. The City accepted the offer and by end of the year the deal consummated.
Initially, Susanville’s water supply came from Piute Creek and wells. In 1864, Luther Spencer claimed Big Springs (Cady) three miles west of town in the Susan River Canyon for a water supply for the community. Spencer’s good intentions never came to fruition.
In 1869, a group of Susanville residents formed the Susanville Water Works with the same proposal as Spencer. Their first priority was to survey a ditch, which they did. Then they went to the community to raise funds for the construction of the ditch and found none. Finally, with due diligence in 1872 construction began on the ditch. It was a modest effort fraught with problems, but it functioned without much change for the remainder of that century.
This is just one of those short musings. Whenever I go out exploring looking for one site, I seem to always stumble something of interest along the way. On the return from an excursion to Stacy, we came back via Wendel. What caught our attention was to see the flow of the Wendel Hot Springs. This had been dry for some years. It turns out one of the turbines using the hot springs is back in operation, and hence the discharge. If anyone can enlighten us about the current operations, I would certainly like to know.
Actually, this is a two prong question, since some might not even know the name of the mountain, let alone it is known for a prominent prehistoric site. In addition, there was a lot of gold and silver mining there in the early 1900s.
In January 1915, the residents of Calneva, a Western Pacific Railroad station in eastern Honey Lake Valley desired the break away from the Fairview School District and form their own. In their petition, they stated nineteen scholars resided in the proposed district. Their request was granted on February 2, 1915 by the Lassen County Board of Supervisors. The new district was named Fort Sage. The school was located in a small one-room building on the Harry Hill homestead. It was later moved to the Aldrich House, a larger building, located in the center of the district. In the summer of 1918, the school was on the verge of being suspended, as enrollment declined to four. The trustees persuaded County Superintendent of Schools, Julia A. Norwood, to keep the school open, as they promised an additional four students would attend in September. The request was granted. The school’s existence was brief and it was closed in 1924. In 1926, the furniture from the school was purchased by the Janesville School District.
A diverse lineup this month, some of the topics readers have suggested. These include Potter’s Maternity Home to Susanville Water Works (Cady Springs). Then there is the dubious 1892 housing subdivision to the demise of the Juniper Inn. Hopefully, with a little bit of luck, the Meet the Mason series should be on track this month.
Tim
Now that election season is in full swing, there was a movement in 1930 to reduce the number of elected officials. Los Angeles County took the lead which officials stated that Sacramento had so much control over counties that there was no longer a need to have so many county elected officials. They proposed besides the supervisors, the only elected officials would be the assessor, district attorney and sheriff. All other positions would be appointed by the supervisors. Lassen County opposed it.
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This house was built in 1893, as a wedding present. Susanville merchant Alfred Jackson had it constructed for his bride-to-be Rose Murrer. In the stone mantle he had the letter “R” carved into it. Unfortunately, their happy marriage was cut short, when he died in a deer hunting accident in 1895. In 1914, when Rose’s mother, Franceska Neuhaus constructed the St. Francis Hotel behind her home, she planted an elaborate flower garden for guests of the hotel to enjoy. Rose remained at her home until the early 1940s, when she moved to Reno, to reside with her only child Leona Byars.
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